Training Log Archive: Peds

hrv:8.7,8.4,7.7 and HR 51,54,55

11 hrs mapping Cnoc Na Cloiche. Lovely day, mostly sunny and not much wind. The little shop in Tarbert is generally quite expensive, but I reckon I found the best value calories - 300g of shortbread, 1500 calories for £1. Ate half today, along with a ham sandwich, an apple and some PB. Bit of L quad poppage right at the end coming down the hill.

hrv:8.6,7.9,8.5 and HR 50,53,52

Not great weather today but managed to get quite a bit done on the Tarbert map, but inefficient though as sometimes having to walk and look at stuff then shelter and draw.

hrv: 8.4, 8.9, 8.1 and HR 54, 53, 55, how on earth am I still in the green, guess it really is the intensity rather than the volume that gets you.

9 hrs mapping Cnoc Na Cloiche

hrv:8.0

6.4k, +40m, 24.2kph

To the ferry off Barra. Thought I was cutting it fine so went fairly fast, but in the end I had to wait in the rain for 10mins. Fun roads!

93.3k, +360m, 28.6kph

Eriskay - South Uist - Benbecula - North Uist - Bernaray.
Big fat tailwind, which was fantastic. Raining for the first half an hour and the last hour or so but mostly not raining in between. Misty and wet roads still though. Was getting really quite worried about 20k in when the creaky noises from the bike were getting worse, was bracing for catastrophic failure on every bump. Stopped and checked everything was tight but they carried on. Met a fellow cyclist at the co-op on Benbecula who thought it was probably the bottom bracket/bearings, but reassured me that it shouldn't fall apart. They didn't seem so bad after I got going again anyway.

Got through 2 packs of oatcakes, 1 nutrigrain, 2 caramel wafers, 1 apple and 1 Werther's original, 1L of water, half of that mixed with the energy drink mix that'd been lying around since BUCS last year.

Arrived on Berneray at 11:30, thinking the ferry was 13:30, so went to the café, where I was I formed the ferry was actually 14:55 due to the tides. After a jacket potato, haggis, cheese and an hour sat in the warmth I pootled (not logged) further on to the lovely little museum and spoke to Donald Maclean who had a wonderful accent.

Back to the ferry, saw some otters, and the sun came out (nearly).

29.8k, +350m (surely a bit more?), 22.3kph

Leverburgh to Tarbert via the wiggly road on the east coast rather than the main road (which does have all the views of the beaches, was a tough decision). Bike on its last legs, bottom bracket worse and some movement in L pedal too, but we made it. Mental road and scenery, constantly up and down and twisting and turning between the lakes and inlets. A few bigger climbs in there as well.

Highlight was of the wildlife variety - heron standing in a lake, flies to a boulder on the side of the lake, lands, gets blindsided out of nowhere by a big bird of prey, makes contact but heron flies off to live another day, sqwarking it's head off. As much as I would love to claim it was a golden eagle, it could have been a buzzard. Wingspan was slightly smaller than the heron's but not much. Dunno.

hrv:7.8, 7.6 (yellow), 7.5 (yellow) and HR 53, 55, 54

39.5k, +400m, 20.5kph

Round the top of Loch Awe, along to Taynuit then over the back road to Oban, which was a bit blooming lumpy and not always the nicest surface but still a lovely route. Thought the ferry was at 12 but misremembered and it was actually at 1. Pretty low HR, maybe a bit of fatigue.

6.9k, +130m, 20.4kph

Ferry to Barra. Turns out Castlebay is called Castlebay because there is a castle sitting in the middle of the bay. Who knew. Bit of a brutal 1k at 9% to get over, which is just on the limit of what I can do sat down, in bottom gear. Bit of a hairy descent on which I definitely didn't need to go so fast, and then a lovely rollercoaster of a road along to the hostel.

hrv: 8.5, 8.5, 8.7 and HR 52, 50, 51. More pretty decent numbers, nice to see.

70.8k, +700m, 19.7kph

Train to Bridge of Allan, then cycled to Crianlarich. First hour to Callendar was fairly uneventful, but reality of a headwind sinking in. Short stop at Callendar to then onto the route 7 cycle path. Tarmac for quite a while, but then about 10k of gravel, sometimes actually quite rough. Bit of tarmac then back on gravel through Edinchip but tamer this time and was really having fun. Ate quite a bit of food early on (brunch bar and pack of oatcakes) then 2 more brunch bars later, but could have done with a little more. No food or water for the last hour. Pretty steep climb up the zig zags at the north end of Edinchip, then onto another 2% uphill railway path up Glen Ogle, which I was expecting to be tarmac but was actually (rather nice) gravel. Did some calculations and knew I'd have plenty of time so booked my train from Crianlarich (while cycling, great efficiency). Hopped onto the main road at the top of Glen Ogle and had a nice but brief descent before about 45mins of grinding along the main road to Crianlarich, into the headwind, chafing a bit and noticing the L knee a little. Thankfully wasn't super busy but was very glad to get to Crianlarich and down 500ml of glass bottle choccy milk, an ice cream, a tin of sardines and half a soreen.

4.1k, +30m, 21.3kph

Train to Dalmally then a pootle down to a little cabin in the woods courtesy of a lovely man on warmshowers.

hrv:8.9

Glorious sunny morning for a little bit of hermitage and blackford with Alex and Sasha. Great to get the scramble in before leaving.

Footie, 3.8k apparently, and wore the HRM so that's accurate. Great to make the debut at the OAPs 5-a-side. As ever I was feeble at defending and keeping but happy to contribute with 4 or 5 goals. Big 16-7 win. Expecting some serious groin doms, on top of some existing quad doms, probably some fragile knees, and last but not at all least have acquired some groin chafing, so all in all I'm looking in excellent shape for the cycling in the next 3 days.